ICC blames South Africa for failing to arrest Sudanese President Al-Bashir

The International Criminal Court on Thursday blamed South Africa for failing to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Judge Cuno Tarfusser said SA had a duty to arrest Al-Bashir and surrender him to the courts in June 2015.

The ruling comes after South Africa ignored an order by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria preventing Al-Bashir from leaving the country when the Sudanese president attended the African Union Summit in Johannesburg in June 2015.

According to information provided by the ICC, Al-Bashir, who has been president of the Republic of Sudan since 1993, was issued with his first warrant of arrest on March 4, 2009 and another on July 12, 2010.

He has been charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

In the wake of the controversy of the Al-Bashir matter, the South African government stated it intended to withdraw from the Rome Statute.

However, in March this year, the government revoked this idea, following a ruling by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria in February which stipulated that a withdrawal would be unconstitutional and invalid – and needed to be taken to Parliament.

In June, it was reported that the ANC’s subcommittee on international relations declared that the party’s decision that South Africa should withdraw from the International Criminal Court still stood, although consultations on the matter continued.